Baby led weaning

My ds is 5 months and we are going to be ready to start solids in a month I'm sure. I've been researching this and wondering if anyone has any positive or negative feedback they'd like to share.

Some questions I have;

What were some of the best first foods to start with?
Did you run into any problems? ie; choking, gagging, non-interest, or others
Did anyone do this along with any mainstream stuff?
If you tried both methods with more than one child what were the pros and cons?
Did anyone start solids of any sort before 6 months?

w/ds1, we did the traditional baby jar thing w/disastrous results, can't go into it now. ds2, we went completely opposite and he's a fantastic eater.

bananas and avocadoes are great first foods. fork mash them and you're ready to go. we stayed away from cereals as they are very constipating to many babies and grains, in general, are hard to digest. i made my own baby food initially, using the Super Baby Food book, but got them used to eating table food off my plate as soon as possible (not rushing the eating, meaning getting away from pureed foods).

w/ds2, i really wanted to wait until much later in life to intro food, but at 5 mos, he was grabbing things off my plate and screaming for my food, so i followed his cues and gave him some bananas and went from there.

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I made my decisions on feeding based on what I learned from The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, a good friend who is a nutritionist, and what I heard from other parents. Since then, I've learned even more (all of which made sense based on what I experienced) and I will do things differently if I raise another child.

We started mashed avocado with a little breastmilk at 6 months. It was fun, and mostly got all over her - I don't think any got in her mouth. We also did bananas around this time, and she liked that, too. Then we moved 3 weeks later, and she stopped being so interested. She only wanted milk (often expressed milk from a bottle given by dad, because I worked a lot). Eventually, we started making our own grain cereal using rice or millet, which we would buy whole grain, grind in a coffee grinder, and cook on the stove with water. Later, we made foods from Annabel Karmel's book (? spelling). Then, we gradually would offer her appropriate foods from our plate - at Thanksgiving (she was 11 months), we chopped up some turkey and sweet potatoes really small, for example.

Also, I really watched carefully about which foods we introduced and how she did with them, because I have a very strong family history of bowel problems. I've noticed a few foods that really tend to constipate her, and I'm glad to know what to avoid.

Really, she never ate a lot of the food we offered. After she was 1, we just continued to offer her stuff from our plate and she's gradually transitioned to eating more of these. Now, she usually eats at least something every time we sit down for a meal, but still drinks a lot of milk (she's almost 2).

Next time, I won't make any special foods. After 6 months, I'll offer appropriate amounts of what we're eating. If I'm eating a banana, I'll offer baby a taste. But no special purees or spoonfeeding. I don't think there was any benefit of it, and I don't think she really needed it or cared for it. It was more just something else to play with. And we already have enough toys!

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Hi,
With my first we did a combination of things, but mostly the traditional spoon feeding from jars, after 6m.
With my second we did totally baby led solids (the term 'baby led weaning' implies that its about lessening the importance of nursing, when its really about how solids fit it, semantics I know, sorry to go off on a tangent )
Anyway, I was pointed to This site and This Blog for some reading.
I really did enjoy the baby-led solids thing but to be honest both of my kids are great eaters. A parents overall attitude towards food and how they talk to and interact with their kids are more important then any one type of approach.
Let us know how it goes!

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We exclusively BLW DS (he is now 13 months). I wouldnt have done it any other way. He LOOOOVES his food and trying new things. He has his favorite things of course, but so far he doesnt have any major dislikes.

We started at 5 months when DS stole some of my banana and crammed it in his mouth!!! We went VERY slowly until six months though and only offered him a little something ever day/other day. At six months it was full steam ahead and other than honey and nuts we were happy with him to try anything.

We have never had a choking incident. He did tend to gag when he had a new tooth but nothing serious.

Best foods to start with are vege and fruit cut into chip shape. Vege soft, but not too soft or they tend to get squished in the hand. A great vege is broccoli as it has a built in 'handle'.

The trick is to remember that until they are one they get most of their nutrition from milk anyway, so its just a matter of sitting back and trusting that your LO will take what they need.

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bananas and avocadoes are great first foods. fork mash them and you're ready to go.

If you're fork mashing them - wouldn't you be spoon feeding them - confused about blw a bit then? I understood you give them larger pieces?

Basically, I just love the idea of not giving traditional cereals first off and also letting baby experiment with food. I guess we just do what works and what we're comfortable with. I'm trying to hold out till 6 months but I'm oh so curious - like any new mom I'm sure. But the fact that some foods I eat still bother him sometimes makes me more diligent in waiting a bit.

If you're fork mashing them - wouldn't you be spoon feeding them - confused about blw a bit then? I understood you give them larger pieces?

i'm not sure i understand. baby led weaning isn't the same thing as self feeding. i did use a spoon w/mine. actually, i gave him a spoon to hold and fed him at the same time. he got practice and i made sure he actually got food.

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i'm not sure i understand. baby led weaning isn't the same thing as self feeding.

My mistake then - I understood it was self feeding.

I did give him some banana when he tried to swipe it off my plate this morning- he really seemed to like it - but I got nervous when he got a big piece in his mouth and so I took it out - then he got really excited for more but was easily distracted by one of the cats - so I left it at that.

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BLW is self feeding. The concept is that you as the parent should never put something foreign in your babies mouth as that is when the risk of choking is at its greatest. You can start BLW when your baby is able to pick something up themselves and navigate it to their own mouth. If they are unable to do this it is likely they are not ready for solids yet.

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Start with simple fruit and veg and ones that are the least allergenic or acidic. Pretty much ditto to what everyone else has posted.
If you find yourself doing banana's also do prunes, but not together as you want to give several days before introducing a new food to see how your baby reacts. Sometimes babies will love bananas so much they will constipate themselves, so later if you can do a bit of a blend of banana and apple or banana and prunes it can help keep the wee one from having trouble... Ronnie gets this sometimes.

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If you find yourself doing banana's also do prunes, but not together as you want to give several days before introducing a new food to see how your baby reacts. Sometimes babies will love bananas so much they will constipate themselves, so later if you can do a bit of a blend of banana and apple or banana and prunes it can help keep the wee one from having trouble... Ronnie gets this sometimes.

Good advice!! I tried giving him some banana last week and I think I'm going to hold off a while longer as he was up for a couple hours in the middle of the night. I could see the chunks of banana in his poo the next day!!! Not sure if the bad sleep was due to the banana but it is still a bit early - he's 22 weeks but he was trying to swipe it off my plate so I figured why not?

I think I'll wait until his sleeping patterns on more stable first so I know if it's the food for sure.